The rapid buildup of telecommunications infrastructure combined with substantial investment in Internet-based businesses and technology has brought Internet connectivity to a large segment of the population. Recent market statistics show that a majority of households in the U.S. own at least one personal computer (PC), and a significant number of these PCs are connected to the Internet. Many households include two or more PCs. Decreases in the cost of PC components such as microprocessors, hard disk drives, memory, and displays, have driven the commoditization of PCs. Although the majority of household PCs are connected to the Internet by dialup modem connections, broadband connectivity is being rapidly adopted, and is decreasing in price as a variety of technologies are introduced and compete in the marketplace. A large majority of households in the U.S. and Europe are viable for at least one or more type of broadband connection, such as cable, DSL, optical networks, fixed wireless, or two-way satellite transmission.
A market for home networking technology has emerged, driven by the need to share an Internet connection between two or more PCs, and to connect all the PCs to productivity peripherals. There has been innovation in local area network (LAN) technology based on end-user desire for simplicity and ease of installation. Installing Ethernet cable is impractical for a majority of end-users, therefore a number of no-new-wires technologies have been introduced. The Home Phoneline Networking Association (HPNA) promotes networking products that turn existing phone wiring in the home into an Ethernet physical layer. Networking technology that uses the AC power wiring in the home to carry data signals has also appeared. Similar to HPNA devices, adapters are required to convert data signals from devices into voltage fluctuations carried on to and off of the AC wires, allowing any AC outlet to become a network interface.
Wireless radio-frequency (RF) LAN technology has also been introduced into the home networking market. Theoretically, wireless technology is the most convenient for the end user to install. There are currently two prevalent standards for wireless networking, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11b and HomeRF. Both of these systems utilize the unlicensed 2.4 Ghz ISM band as the carrier frequency for the transmission of data. Both of these technologies have effective ranges of approximately 150 feet in a typical household setting. Adapters that are RF transceivers are required for each device to communicate on the network. In addition to utilizing Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocols, IEEE 802.11b and HomeRF include additional encryption and security protocol layers so that the user's devices have controlled access to data being sent through the LAN.
Due to market competition and the effect of Moore's Law, home networking technology is greatly increasing in performance and availability, while decreasing in price. For example, the IEEE 802.11 technology roadmap shows the introduction of 802.11a at 54 Mbps, also utilizing the 5 Ghz band. It is important to note that LAN data-rates are increasing much faster than wide-area (broadband) data-rates, such as the data-rates provided by “last mile” technologies including DSL, DOCSIS.
While networked PCs with Internet connectivity provide greater convenience for productivity applications, there are other trends that are influencing end user's content experiencing habits. Most notably, the digitization of content across all media types is creating portability and reusability that are affording new uses and content presentation scenarios. For example, Personal Video Recorders (hereafter PVRs are increasing in popularity. These devices are an improvement on VCR “time-shifting” functionality, allowing users to record, pause, and start live broadcast media, almost in real time. These devices digitize terrestrially broadcast television content and store the files on a hard disk drive, providing much faster random access, fast-forwarding, and rewinding. A graphical user interface is provided that allows users to make content preference selections.
The MP3 digital audio format is an audio encoding technology that allows consumers to further compress digital audio files such as those found on Compact Disks, to much smaller sizes with very little decrease in sound quality. For example, the MP3 format allows for compression of audio content to approximately 1 million bytes per minute of audio, at near Compact Disk quality. The smaller size of MP3 encoded audio files has also enabled these files to be shared by users across the Internet, since the transfer of these files takes an acceptable amount of time. In addition to music, many other types of audio content are now available in digital format, such as spoken-word content, news, commentary, and educational content. Digital files containing audio recordings of books being read aloud are available for download directly from their website.
Graphic content such as digital still images and digital multimedia video files are also increasingly available. Digital still and video cameras allow the capture and rapid transfer of images. Digital cameras are gaining popularity in the market because of the increases in media density and convenience provided at the camera, and because of the portability of the digital image files themselves. Products exist that allows users to share digital images across the Internet. One example is the Ceiva Picture Frame provided by Ceiva Logic, Inc.,. The Ceiva product includes a frame housing similar to a conventional picture frame, but with a large LCD 176 in place of a photograph. The device includes a microprocessor 192, memory, and modem. The device must be plugged into a phone line, and it functions by automatically dialing-up to a Internet server where new digital images are stored. Based on user instructions made through a setup function on a website, a group of photos are sent to, stored on, and displayed by the device. In addition to the fact that they include a large LCD 176, digital picture frame 160s are expensive because they must also include enough memory to store a large quantity of digital content files.
Cable, as well as satellite TV services are efficient in providing video content to a wide variety of users. However, most existing cable and satellite systems provide video delivery services on a broadcast model, that is, customers must choose from a set number of audio/video programs that are simultaneously broadcast, with the schedule determined by the broadcast networks. With the overlaying of data services over existing cable lines, there is the opportunity to provide a video-on-demand service whereby customers could order video programming of their choice at any time. However, simple calculation shows that pure video-on-demand cannot be supported by the bandwidth available on the existing networks, due to the high data-rates required to transport high-quality video and audio in real-time.
The convergence of the digitization of graphical content, combined with the proliferation and decreasing cost of networking and data processing components, is providing the opportunity to deliver rich content via the Internet, to a variety of inexpensive devices beyond the personal computer.
What is needed is a system that provides an economically optimal architecture and management system for allowing users to set up preferences for digital images and video, and other services, to be automatically delivered to inexpensive image output devices. Further, the digital image output device should have the capability of being untethered by both AC power requirements and the network physical layer.